Holy Week Diary — April 7, 2023

The reflection is drawn from Isaiah 52:13-53:12.

Here are the two sonnets by Malcolm Guite mentioned in today’s recording:

See, as they strip the robe from off his back
 And spread his arms and nail them to the cross,
 The dark nails pierce him and the sky turns black,
 And love is firmly fastened onto loss.
 But here a pure change happens. On this tree
 Loss becomes gain, death opens into birth.
 Here wounding heals and fastening makes free
 Earth breathes in heaven, heaven roots in earth.
 And here we see the length, the breadth, the height
 Where love and hatred meet and love stays true
 Where sin meets grace and darkness turns to light
 We see what love can bear and be and do,
 And here our saviour calls us to his side
 His love is free, his arms are open wide.

 The dark nails pierce him and the sky turns black
 We watch him as he labours to draw breath
 He takes our breath away to give it back,
 Return it to it’s birth through his slow death.
 We hear him struggle breathing through the pain
 Who once breathed out his spirit on the deep,
 Who formed us when he mixed the dust with rain
 And drew us into consciousness from sleep.
 His spirit and his life he breathes in all
 Mantles his world in his one atmosphere
 And now he comes to breathe beneath the pall
 Of our pollutions, draw our injured air
 To cleanse it and renew. His final breath
 Breathes us, and bears us through the gates of death.